July 21, 2025 • 21 mins
Just because they sell it and have marketing campaigns doesn't mean it's best for your children. Join Cindy and Alison for a discussion about what is actually developmentally appropriate learning for young children (hint: You don't need to buy an expensive curriculum).
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- Learn more about Cindy's work, including professional development, family education, and consulting opportunities: https://hihello.com/hi/cindyterebush-RXMBKA
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is Alison Knto's I am an early childhood educator.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And this is Cindy terror Bush. I am an early
childhood consultant.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This podcast is for parents and early childhood professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let our experience and research based knowledge become your guide.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Welcome back, preschool peeps. I kind of want to sing
the song just the two of us.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Just the two of us.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
That's beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, no, me neither. But what we're
singing that song because in the last two episodes that
were Part one and Part two, my son was here
with us, and now he is not. It is back
to the Cindy and Alison no Michael show. Yes, we're back.
We're back, and as part of being back, our background
(00:53):
is now what it was and you can see if
Allison moves her head, you can see the QR code
that will lead you to things like the podcast, web
site and other resources. Yeah, and ways to reach out
to us through our website and through Facebook and all
sorts of things. So if you were listening to last
two episodes and you enjoyed having Michael talking with us,
so you thought, wow, Michael makes decent points. Then feel
(01:16):
free to let us know because I think he might
be willing to do it again in the future. You know,
it's easy to get him. He's my son, Yeah, though
he doesn't live here. Yeah, when he visits, its.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Excuse for him to come out and visit.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
It is a good excuse for him to come out
and visits.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Really like insightful points.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
He's an insightful person, very smart he is. He's he
is very smart and insightful person. And I take, you know,
partial credit for that, but he really he's quite the
human being.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
To take no credit, I cannot.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So we're back and we need to shout out two
places to start this episode, don't we Yes, we do, go.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Ahead, shouting out Ireland. Hello, everybody in Ireland. I've always
wanted to visit there.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'd like beautiful.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
I'd like to give a very special acknowledgment to Ireland
if I may so. I have been doing a weight
loss and lifestyle change program that actually comes from Ireland.
It's a called If anyone's interested, it's called Body Slims.
I should really tag them on this episode. This is
some pre advertising. It's fantastic, folks. It is Body Slims.
(02:22):
Look it up. One word Body Slims comes from Ireland
and it's healthy and it's really basically, you get a
calorie allowance, you count your calories, you walk a solid
hour every day, and you listen to their motivational and
educational videos and stuff. And it's been amazing in my
(02:42):
life in so many ways. So it is life changing
for me, not only like in physical appearance, but also
medically life changing. So thank you Ireland for giving us
Body Slims and the people behind it. Yea, I love that.
I'm about to tag.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Those people like mad If you listen to the last episode,
you really are not good at remembering to tag people.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Okay, but you know what. I am connected with the
head coach of Body Slims on Instagram. We have gone
back from fourth a little. I can let her know,
I can tag her. I can. I'm excited. All right,
we're in the United States. Are they listening? Can I
relate to this one?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I don't know? Can you? We're shouting out Mississippi.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I know about Mississippi. I've not been to Mississippi. Sorry
for Mississippi. Why haven't we never?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
All right?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I don't know, and I've traveled a bit in the
United States. I don't just not been to Mississippi, but
maybe we'll put it on the United States travel bucket list.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, So we're so glad you're listening in Mississippi and
in Ireland, and we appreciate it. Spread the word, tell
your friends and neighbors, and please do keep listening and
contacting us, because we love to hear from all of you.
And we may have some things coming up that we're
inspired by listeners today. However, the topic is inspired by
(04:08):
some things that we've seen. Yes, and you know, we're
in a very market like, let's market it to the people.
Let's call it things. Let's market it to the people,
and if you build it, they will come. Yes, but
it isn't always good for us or for the children.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Children.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
And one of those things that has been widely marketed
now are these curriculums that families can buy and use
at home to help their children learn. So I would
like to say first that I am all about families
helping their children learn. I think it's wonderful when families
are involved and involved in the early childhood program and
(04:52):
they want to know how to help their children build skills.
I love that. Here's the problem. Many of the cre
that are being marketed to families are not developmentally appropriate
for this age group. They have activities in them that
the National Association for the Education of Young Children and
the pediatricians would tell you are not appropriate for the
(05:13):
age group. Excuse me, sorry about that. Okay, human, so
I think And that was a cough, not a sneeze.
By the way, No, I.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I knew that because I didn't say blessed you.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
See, okay, thank you. It's really I have a little
piece of something caught in the back of my throat.
You knows right now.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
There you see, wh're real people, people.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Getting back to the top. So I was looking I
saw like, oh these. I was looking up something having
to do with curriculum, and I saw parent curriculums, especially
for families, for parents, for people whoever's raising the children.
And I was like, that's interesting. Like it's not even
just the program sending things home. It's it's something you
(05:58):
can purchase. That's interesting. And I went in there and
I looked at it and went, oh no, because it
includes workbooks, worksheets, flash cards, all the things that are
not developmentally appropriate for this age group and are not
the way that they learn best. Correct, And I'm sure
(06:18):
families are widely buying this. I harkened back to many
years ago there was a product that promised people that
they could get their babies reading babies readings, and lots
of people did buy it. They spent hundreds of dollars
and what ended up happening in the end was it
(06:40):
didn't work, and there was I believe a lawsuit, probably
class action lawsuit, because people had spent so much money
and it was taken off the market. Yes, I suspect
that these curriculums will be a little different because what
they're going to what they're asking children to do is
memorize things and spit it back, and people will mistake
(07:01):
that for actual learning and knowledge. Yes, until a child
can take what they've learned and use it to create
from their own ideas and not ours. Until they can
use it to create, to analyze, compare contrast situations, to
(07:22):
evaluate what they're seeing, then it's not deeper learning. And
the way children learn to do that, to create, to analyze,
to evaluate, to develop deep critical thinking skills is with
hands on explorations. So I'm here to tell you if
you're looking at a curriculum for home, or you work
in a program where you know the families are buying this,
(07:44):
and it's like a packet full of workbooks or a
packet full of worksheets, or a packet full of flash cards.
Save yourself some money and instead go for a walk
with your children, yes, and talk to them and talk
to them, pint out things they're seeing, and let them
use their senses to explore it, and bring some artifacts
(08:06):
home from outside so that they can further and more
deeply explore it in their own time when they want to,
instead of buying these curriculums that are being marketed. Now,
what you could do if you're thinking, well, I don't know.
I mean, I don't know if I want to take
a walk. It's hot, it's humid, it's gold, it's snowing. Okay,
here's what you can do the time that you would
(08:28):
have spent doing those coloring pages and worksheets and all
that stuff, put it away and instead sit on the
floor if you can, or on a chair and play
with your children. That was my device. It doesn't know
how to help you with that.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Because because all you have to do is play or
let them play.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Let them play, Let them play.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It costs nothing to let them play.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
And then you go over while they're playing and you
ask questions that require them to think critically about what
they're doing. You ask things like why did you decide
to put that over there? Or tell me the story
of what you're pretending, or what do you.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Think will happen if we do this right? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:13):
So, really, children need hands on exploration, They need meaningful conversation.
They need people having serve and return interactions with them,
back and forth, back and forth. And for an infant
that looks like you know, you make a face and
I make a face, and then you make a face
and I make a face or you boo, right, peekaboo,
(09:34):
Peekaboo's a great serve and return. So yeah, I'm so
concerned about what people are buying. And I've also seen
some curriculums that are aimed at people who are homeschooling.
And I know we have homeschoolers listening to this podcast
because we hear from you. We hear from you, so
and we're paying attention to that. And I want to
(09:55):
tell you that going out with your children and having
a real experience teaches them so much more than these workbooks,
and people may be wondering, well, what's wrong with doing
that at home? So they are not When these sort
of flashcards and workbooks and all that are written, they
(10:17):
don't take into consideration the individual needs of children, and
they very often set them up to fail instead of succeed,
and they are like a one size fits all. If
we learned anything about early education is that one size
does not fit all exactly. And that's why we talk
so much about ensuring that we are observing children, figuring
(10:38):
out what they know, what they can do, what are
their prior experiences, what is their culture like? What we're
learning all about your children when we observe them, so
that we can tell her what we do with them.
If your children go to an early childhood program, what
they should be sending home to you are activities to
do in a hands on way, Yes, with your children.
(11:00):
It should be things like we're in school, we are
teaching children about, you know, being able to recognize their names.
What you can do at home is label some of
their things with their names, and then put your names
on your things and expand that knowledge and have the
(11:20):
children help you do that. It shouldn't be here's a
worksheet of the child's name and now have them tracing
a thousand times. Yeah, it shouldn't be that being sent home. Yeah,
and I know that. Sometimes programs tell me, well, that's
what families are looking for, and it's because they don't
know better, folks.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You don't know what you don't know, right, That's what
it is. And nothing against families. They don't know what
they don't know. Not every family has early childhood experts
in them, like you don't know, right, So that is
what they're asking for because that's what they grew up
with and that's what they think is supposed to happen.
But you, as the educator, need to educate them and
(12:00):
what is the appropriate thing to do at home to
get their child to whatever their goal is.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
We have to say things to them, like you know,
when they say things like well, I would like to
have worksheets. I want my child to be able to
follow directions, we have to tell them, well, you know,
children need to learn to follow directions in an authentic
way that's reflected in the way adults follow directions. So
what would be a really good thing for your child
to learn to follow directions is have them cook with you,
(12:26):
have them put together something with you, you know, because
how do we follow directions as adults? We cook or
we put together furniture?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Right right?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Like, so have them put together. And it doesn't have
to be complicated furniture. It can be you know, you
take pictures of things you have in your home. It
can even be like we're going to put the laundry away,
so we have photos of each step by step of
how to do that. You go to the laundry basket,
you grab the socks, you bring the socks to the drawer,
you come back to the laundry basket. You just step
(12:56):
by step with visuals and let them follow that. That's
them learning to follow directions. But they need visuals.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Yeah, I think an easy one sometimes is how do
you pack your bag up to go to school?
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah, there you go, there's visuals. You take pictures of
what they put in their bag and let them gather it.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, what do you need for school?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
You need your lunch box, you need your water bottle,
you need whatever it is that you need to bring
to school that day, and you need to pack it
up and you need to zip it up. And you
need to Like, that's something that we work on at
school that you can easily do at home.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
People learn more from authentic situations and interactions than they
do from from rote memorization. Just here, remember it and
spit it back at me and more than and and
repetition is important, but the repetition needs to be authentic
and hands on and natural.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, not just spitting it back out at you.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah, you know, I so many things. I'm sure as
a student I memorize spit it back and couldn't tell
you one thing about it today.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I don't remember any of that.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yeah, that is like the early childhood studying for the
test kind of thing that so many people are against.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Like, oh, we're teaching to a test. Well, when you give.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
These worksheets or these flash cards, you're teaching to a test, right,
Like that's basically what that is.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It really is, you know, And so many people are like,
we shouldn't be teaching to a test. I'm like, well,
you're buying curriculum that's teaching to a test.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And it's important that families know not to get nervous
and not to compare their children to other children. Like
there's so much comparison in today's world.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
But I think that's why people are prone to buy
those things, because there's a lot of fear, and there's
a lot of like I don't want my child to
get behind, and I'm worried about them, and I want
to give them the best step forward, and then these
curriculums are marketed towards that.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Isn't it true that we talk about we each carve
our own lives, Yes, right, we carve our own lives,
and all of us are good at some things, and
all of us struggle with other things, and all of
us have areas of strength, and all of us have
areas for opportunity for growth, And comparing isn't good. And
(15:13):
the only time I think comparing is a beneficial thing
is when we are scientifically comparing something like what is
the average development of a child in this age group?
What is far outside the average? But that's scientifically based.
When I'm just looking at other people's children, going, well,
(15:34):
he can do this, why can't you do it? It's
because we're all on our own path, right, and the
path is not the same from child to child. They
don't even take in information and learn it in the
same way. Never mind use it in the same way.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
And for some children, they're going to learn to be
verbal earlier than other children. And some children are going
to be really good at mathematical and spatial concepts before
other childchildren. And some children are going to read before
other children. Yes, right, some children are going to walk
before other children. The question becomes what is outside of
the range of typical development? And for that we have
(16:11):
screening tools and specialists. Yes, I think people need to
stop panicking that if their child isn't doing exactly what
another child is doing, that they're outside of the range
of typical development. You have to really look into that
with experts, and the first step in doing that is
making sure your child goes to an early childhood program
that does developmental screening. We have to screen the children
(16:35):
to find out who needs what kind of extra support potentially,
and then it's the experts, the specialists who actually determine
that if screening doesn't diagnose any right, And I think
it's important that we stop doing this non scientific comparison.
And you're right, it's what drives people to get people
to spend the money and get the curriculum. When I
(16:56):
think deep inside people know, if I just spend time
interacting with this child, the child's gonna gain knowledge. Children
learn every waking moment of the day. Yeah, and so
intentional conversations with them are good. You know what, you
want a child to learn how a story is written.
Sit with them at the end of the day, ask them,
Tell them about your day, ask them about their day,
(17:18):
and they're gonna learn about the sequencing of a story. Yes, right,
They're gonna learn how to stay on topic. They're gonna
learn how to think in a language and literacy way.
You want children to learn math in an authentic way.
Let them help you sort laundry, Yeah, right, sort laundry.
Count how many people are gonna be sitting at the table,
(17:39):
And do we have enough cups? Do we have enough plates?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah? Have them?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Like set the table. I think it is a big
mathematical thing. We have four people, we need four plates,
we have we need four forks, we need you know, like,
that's a big mathematical and place in them one to
one to one is a big mathematical thing.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
I like to look at children and say, you put
out plates, right, you put out a bunch of plates.
You put out a bunch cups. You look at child
and you say, how do you know if we have
the right number of plates to people? How do you know?
And let them kind of puzzle that out where they're thinking, oh,
I should put one of these in front of every chair, right,
But let them do that problem solving, folks, that's real learning.
You don't need to spend you know, hundreds of dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You just don't.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
And just because someone says to you this is how
to do it doesn't mean that they're going by any
kind of facts to say that anybody can market anything
and anybody can put anything on the internet. This is
not vetted.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
It reminds me of one of our really really really
early episodes is you're expert, really an expert. So when
you have people who are creating curriculum, they may not
be experts in early childhood education, they might not be
you don't know right who they are or what they're
experts in. So like, is your curriculum really expert based?
(19:02):
Probably not expert written?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
No, you know, you don't.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Know, you don't know, and you know anybody can self
declare I'm an expert. Yes, you can look at the
information about what's developmentally appropriate for this age group through
reputable repute book, reputable reputable sources like the National Association
(19:28):
for the Education of Young Children is one zero two
three three yep zero to three, the Harvard Graduate School
of Education. All they put out about early education, and
they put a lot out, So please find reputable places.
And I'm going to offer you all this. If you're
looking at a product or your you know your families
are using a particular product, uh, and you want to
(19:50):
contact us and say what do you think of this?
I would answer that contact and I would answer that email,
and I will be honest and tell you what I think.
And now you're thinking, well, what makes her an expert?
I'll tell you exactly what makes me an expert, folks,
is I've been recognized as an expert by outside entities,
by universities, by actually a court system in the state
(20:13):
of New Jersey, so by a publisher. But I've been
recognized by people who can actually bestow the title expert.
So I've been a subject matter expert for universities. I
have been an expert witness. I am a published author
by a publishing company. I am asked by really reputable
(20:38):
associations and agencies to teach on their behalf. So there
you go. It comes from not me just saying, and
I have to be honest. The first time expert was
attached to me, I had a lot of imposter syndrome.
I was like, what on earth is happening here? I
also have a master's degree, I have an advanced degree.
(21:00):
I have multiple certifications. So there you go. There you go, right, yeah,
there you go. So if you want me to take
a look or both of us, I'm more than happy
to save you a couple cents or maybe give you
the way to talk to the families about it, because
(21:21):
sometimes people just don't have the words yes right, you
don't know how to talk to them in a way
that's not going to be offensive. So I'm happy to help.
You can go to how preschool Teachers Do It dot com.
We have a contact form and you can go to
Facebook and send us a message, and also we have
a forum we do on our website. Feel free folks,
(21:42):
please use that forum on the website. All right, we
will catch you next time on the podcast. Bye piece
Welcome to How Preschool Teachers Do It.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is Alison Knto's I am an early childhood educator.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
And this is Cindy terror Bush. I am an early
childhood consultant.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
This podcast is for parents and early childhood professionals.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Let our experience and research based knowledge become your guide.
Speaker 4 (00:23):
Welcome back, preschool peeps. I kind of want to sing
the song just the two of us.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Just the two of us.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
That's beautiful, beautiful. Yeah, no, me neither. But what we're
singing that song because in the last two episodes that
were Part one and Part two, my son was here
with us, and now he is not. It is back
to the Cindy and Alison no Michael show. Yes, we're back.
We're back, and as part of being back, our background
(00:53):
is now what it was and you can see if
Allison moves her head, you can see the QR code
that will lead you to things like the podcast, web
site and other resources. Yeah, and ways to reach out
to us through our website and through Facebook and all
sorts of things. So if you were listening to last
two episodes and you enjoyed having Michael talking with us,
so you thought, wow, Michael makes decent points. Then feel
(01:16):
free to let us know because I think he might
be willing to do it again in the future. You know,
it's easy to get him. He's my son, Yeah, though
he doesn't live here. Yeah, when he visits, its.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Excuse for him to come out and visit.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
It is a good excuse for him to come out
and visits.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Really like insightful points.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
He's an insightful person, very smart he is. He's he
is very smart and insightful person. And I take, you know,
partial credit for that, but he really he's quite the
human being.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
To take no credit, I cannot.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
So we're back and we need to shout out two
places to start this episode, don't we Yes, we do, go.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Ahead, shouting out Ireland. Hello, everybody in Ireland. I've always
wanted to visit there.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
I'd like beautiful.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
I'd like to give a very special acknowledgment to Ireland
if I may so. I have been doing a weight
loss and lifestyle change program that actually comes from Ireland.
It's a called If anyone's interested, it's called Body Slims.
I should really tag them on this episode. This is
some pre advertising. It's fantastic, folks. It is Body Slims.
(02:22):
Look it up. One word Body Slims comes from Ireland
and it's healthy and it's really basically, you get a
calorie allowance, you count your calories, you walk a solid
hour every day, and you listen to their motivational and
educational videos and stuff. And it's been amazing in my
(02:42):
life in so many ways. So it is life changing
for me, not only like in physical appearance, but also
medically life changing. So thank you Ireland for giving us
Body Slims and the people behind it. Yea, I love that.
I'm about to tag.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Those people like mad If you listen to the last episode,
you really are not good at remembering to tag people.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
Okay, but you know what. I am connected with the
head coach of Body Slims on Instagram. We have gone
back from fourth a little. I can let her know,
I can tag her. I can. I'm excited. All right,
we're in the United States. Are they listening? Can I
relate to this one?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
I don't know? Can you? We're shouting out Mississippi.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
I know about Mississippi. I've not been to Mississippi. Sorry
for Mississippi. Why haven't we never?
Speaker 1 (03:37):
All right?
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I don't know, and I've traveled a bit in the
United States. I don't just not been to Mississippi, but
maybe we'll put it on the United States travel bucket list.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Yeah, So we're so glad you're listening in Mississippi and
in Ireland, and we appreciate it. Spread the word, tell
your friends and neighbors, and please do keep listening and
contacting us, because we love to hear from all of you.
And we may have some things coming up that we're
inspired by listeners today. However, the topic is inspired by
(04:08):
some things that we've seen. Yes, and you know, we're
in a very market like, let's market it to the people.
Let's call it things. Let's market it to the people,
and if you build it, they will come. Yes, but
it isn't always good for us or for the children.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Children.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
And one of those things that has been widely marketed
now are these curriculums that families can buy and use
at home to help their children learn. So I would
like to say first that I am all about families
helping their children learn. I think it's wonderful when families
are involved and involved in the early childhood program and
(04:52):
they want to know how to help their children build skills.
I love that. Here's the problem. Many of the cre
that are being marketed to families are not developmentally appropriate
for this age group. They have activities in them that
the National Association for the Education of Young Children and
the pediatricians would tell you are not appropriate for the
(05:13):
age group. Excuse me, sorry about that. Okay, human, so
I think And that was a cough, not a sneeze.
By the way, No, I.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I knew that because I didn't say blessed you.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
See, okay, thank you. It's really I have a little
piece of something caught in the back of my throat.
You knows right now.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
There you see, wh're real people, people.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Getting back to the top. So I was looking I
saw like, oh these. I was looking up something having
to do with curriculum, and I saw parent curriculums, especially
for families, for parents, for people whoever's raising the children.
And I was like, that's interesting. Like it's not even
just the program sending things home. It's it's something you
(05:58):
can purchase. That's interesting. And I went in there and
I looked at it and went, oh no, because it
includes workbooks, worksheets, flash cards, all the things that are
not developmentally appropriate for this age group and are not
the way that they learn best. Correct, And I'm sure
(06:18):
families are widely buying this. I harkened back to many
years ago there was a product that promised people that
they could get their babies reading babies readings, and lots
of people did buy it. They spent hundreds of dollars
and what ended up happening in the end was it
(06:40):
didn't work, and there was I believe a lawsuit, probably
class action lawsuit, because people had spent so much money
and it was taken off the market. Yes, I suspect
that these curriculums will be a little different because what
they're going to what they're asking children to do is
memorize things and spit it back, and people will mistake
(07:01):
that for actual learning and knowledge. Yes, until a child
can take what they've learned and use it to create
from their own ideas and not ours. Until they can
use it to create, to analyze, compare contrast situations, to
(07:22):
evaluate what they're seeing, then it's not deeper learning. And
the way children learn to do that, to create, to analyze,
to evaluate, to develop deep critical thinking skills is with
hands on explorations. So I'm here to tell you if
you're looking at a curriculum for home, or you work
in a program where you know the families are buying this,
(07:44):
and it's like a packet full of workbooks or a
packet full of worksheets, or a packet full of flash cards.
Save yourself some money and instead go for a walk
with your children, yes, and talk to them and talk
to them, pint out things they're seeing, and let them
use their senses to explore it, and bring some artifacts
(08:06):
home from outside so that they can further and more
deeply explore it in their own time when they want to,
instead of buying these curriculums that are being marketed. Now,
what you could do if you're thinking, well, I don't know.
I mean, I don't know if I want to take
a walk. It's hot, it's humid, it's gold, it's snowing. Okay,
here's what you can do the time that you would
(08:28):
have spent doing those coloring pages and worksheets and all
that stuff, put it away and instead sit on the
floor if you can, or on a chair and play
with your children. That was my device. It doesn't know
how to help you with that.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Because because all you have to do is play or
let them play.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Let them play, Let them play.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
It costs nothing to let them play.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
And then you go over while they're playing and you
ask questions that require them to think critically about what
they're doing. You ask things like why did you decide
to put that over there? Or tell me the story
of what you're pretending, or what do you.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Think will happen if we do this right? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (09:13):
So, really, children need hands on exploration, They need meaningful conversation.
They need people having serve and return interactions with them,
back and forth, back and forth. And for an infant
that looks like you know, you make a face and
I make a face, and then you make a face
and I make a face or you boo, right, peekaboo,
(09:34):
Peekaboo's a great serve and return. So yeah, I'm so
concerned about what people are buying. And I've also seen
some curriculums that are aimed at people who are homeschooling.
And I know we have homeschoolers listening to this podcast
because we hear from you. We hear from you, so
and we're paying attention to that. And I want to
(09:55):
tell you that going out with your children and having
a real experience teaches them so much more than these workbooks,
and people may be wondering, well, what's wrong with doing
that at home? So they are not When these sort
of flashcards and workbooks and all that are written, they
(10:17):
don't take into consideration the individual needs of children, and
they very often set them up to fail instead of succeed,
and they are like a one size fits all. If
we learned anything about early education is that one size
does not fit all exactly. And that's why we talk
so much about ensuring that we are observing children, figuring
(10:38):
out what they know, what they can do, what are
their prior experiences, what is their culture like? What we're
learning all about your children when we observe them, so
that we can tell her what we do with them.
If your children go to an early childhood program, what
they should be sending home to you are activities to
do in a hands on way, Yes, with your children.
(11:00):
It should be things like we're in school, we are
teaching children about, you know, being able to recognize their names.
What you can do at home is label some of
their things with their names, and then put your names
on your things and expand that knowledge and have the
(11:20):
children help you do that. It shouldn't be here's a
worksheet of the child's name and now have them tracing
a thousand times. Yeah, it shouldn't be that being sent home. Yeah,
and I know that. Sometimes programs tell me, well, that's
what families are looking for, and it's because they don't
know better, folks.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
You don't know what you don't know, right, That's what
it is. And nothing against families. They don't know what
they don't know. Not every family has early childhood experts
in them, like you don't know, right, So that is
what they're asking for because that's what they grew up
with and that's what they think is supposed to happen.
But you, as the educator, need to educate them and
(12:00):
what is the appropriate thing to do at home to
get their child to whatever their goal is.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
We have to say things to them, like you know,
when they say things like well, I would like to
have worksheets. I want my child to be able to
follow directions, we have to tell them, well, you know,
children need to learn to follow directions in an authentic
way that's reflected in the way adults follow directions. So
what would be a really good thing for your child
to learn to follow directions is have them cook with you,
(12:26):
have them put together something with you, you know, because
how do we follow directions as adults? We cook or
we put together furniture?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Right right?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Like, so have them put together. And it doesn't have
to be complicated furniture. It can be you know, you
take pictures of things you have in your home. It
can even be like we're going to put the laundry away,
so we have photos of each step by step of
how to do that. You go to the laundry basket,
you grab the socks, you bring the socks to the drawer,
you come back to the laundry basket. You just step
(12:56):
by step with visuals and let them follow that. That's
them learning to follow directions. But they need visuals.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Yeah, I think an easy one sometimes is how do
you pack your bag up to go to school?
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah, there you go, there's visuals. You take pictures of
what they put in their bag and let them gather it.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, what do you need for school?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
You need your lunch box, you need your water bottle,
you need whatever it is that you need to bring
to school that day, and you need to pack it
up and you need to zip it up. And you
need to Like, that's something that we work on at
school that you can easily do at home.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
People learn more from authentic situations and interactions than they
do from from rote memorization. Just here, remember it and
spit it back at me and more than and and
repetition is important, but the repetition needs to be authentic
and hands on and natural.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, not just spitting it back out at you.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
Yeah, you know, I so many things. I'm sure as
a student I memorize spit it back and couldn't tell
you one thing about it today.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I don't remember any of that.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yeah, that is like the early childhood studying for the
test kind of thing that so many people are against.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Like, oh, we're teaching to a test. Well, when you give.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
These worksheets or these flash cards, you're teaching to a test, right,
Like that's basically what that is.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
It really is, you know, And so many people are like,
we shouldn't be teaching to a test. I'm like, well,
you're buying curriculum that's teaching to a test.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And it's important that families know not to get nervous
and not to compare their children to other children. Like
there's so much comparison in today's world.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
But I think that's why people are prone to buy
those things, because there's a lot of fear, and there's
a lot of like I don't want my child to
get behind, and I'm worried about them, and I want
to give them the best step forward, and then these
curriculums are marketed towards that.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Isn't it true that we talk about we each carve
our own lives, Yes, right, we carve our own lives,
and all of us are good at some things, and
all of us struggle with other things, and all of
us have areas of strength, and all of us have
areas for opportunity for growth, And comparing isn't good. And
(15:13):
the only time I think comparing is a beneficial thing
is when we are scientifically comparing something like what is
the average development of a child in this age group?
What is far outside the average? But that's scientifically based.
When I'm just looking at other people's children, going, well,
(15:34):
he can do this, why can't you do it? It's
because we're all on our own path, right, and the
path is not the same from child to child. They
don't even take in information and learn it in the
same way. Never mind use it in the same way.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
And for some children, they're going to learn to be
verbal earlier than other children. And some children are going
to be really good at mathematical and spatial concepts before
other childchildren. And some children are going to read before
other children. Yes, right, some children are going to walk
before other children. The question becomes what is outside of
the range of typical development? And for that we have
(16:11):
screening tools and specialists. Yes, I think people need to
stop panicking that if their child isn't doing exactly what
another child is doing, that they're outside of the range
of typical development. You have to really look into that
with experts, and the first step in doing that is
making sure your child goes to an early childhood program
that does developmental screening. We have to screen the children
(16:35):
to find out who needs what kind of extra support potentially,
and then it's the experts, the specialists who actually determine
that if screening doesn't diagnose any right, And I think
it's important that we stop doing this non scientific comparison.
And you're right, it's what drives people to get people
to spend the money and get the curriculum. When I
(16:56):
think deep inside people know, if I just spend time
interacting with this child, the child's gonna gain knowledge. Children
learn every waking moment of the day. Yeah, and so
intentional conversations with them are good. You know what, you
want a child to learn how a story is written.
Sit with them at the end of the day, ask them,
Tell them about your day, ask them about their day,
(17:18):
and they're gonna learn about the sequencing of a story. Yes, right,
They're gonna learn how to stay on topic. They're gonna
learn how to think in a language and literacy way.
You want children to learn math in an authentic way.
Let them help you sort laundry, Yeah, right, sort laundry.
Count how many people are gonna be sitting at the table,
(17:39):
And do we have enough cups? Do we have enough plates?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah? Have them?
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Like set the table. I think it is a big
mathematical thing. We have four people, we need four plates,
we have we need four forks, we need you know, like,
that's a big mathematical and place in them one to
one to one is a big mathematical thing.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
I like to look at children and say, you put
out plates, right, you put out a bunch of plates.
You put out a bunch cups. You look at child
and you say, how do you know if we have
the right number of plates to people? How do you know?
And let them kind of puzzle that out where they're thinking, oh,
I should put one of these in front of every chair, right,
But let them do that problem solving, folks, that's real learning.
You don't need to spend you know, hundreds of dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
You just don't.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
And just because someone says to you this is how
to do it doesn't mean that they're going by any
kind of facts to say that anybody can market anything
and anybody can put anything on the internet. This is
not vetted.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
It reminds me of one of our really really really
early episodes is you're expert, really an expert. So when
you have people who are creating curriculum, they may not
be experts in early childhood education, they might not be
you don't know right who they are or what they're
experts in. So like, is your curriculum really expert based?
(19:02):
Probably not expert written?
Speaker 2 (19:04):
No, you know, you don't.
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Know, you don't know, and you know anybody can self
declare I'm an expert. Yes, you can look at the
information about what's developmentally appropriate for this age group through
reputable repute book, reputable reputable sources like the National Association
(19:28):
for the Education of Young Children is one zero two
three three yep zero to three, the Harvard Graduate School
of Education. All they put out about early education, and
they put a lot out, So please find reputable places.
And I'm going to offer you all this. If you're
looking at a product or your you know your families
are using a particular product, uh, and you want to
(19:50):
contact us and say what do you think of this?
I would answer that contact and I would answer that email,
and I will be honest and tell you what I think.
And now you're thinking, well, what makes her an expert?
I'll tell you exactly what makes me an expert, folks,
is I've been recognized as an expert by outside entities,
by universities, by actually a court system in the state
(20:13):
of New Jersey, so by a publisher. But I've been
recognized by people who can actually bestow the title expert.
So I've been a subject matter expert for universities. I
have been an expert witness. I am a published author
by a publishing company. I am asked by really reputable
(20:38):
associations and agencies to teach on their behalf. So there
you go. It comes from not me just saying, and
I have to be honest. The first time expert was
attached to me, I had a lot of imposter syndrome.
I was like, what on earth is happening here? I
also have a master's degree, I have an advanced degree.
(21:00):
I have multiple certifications. So there you go. There you go, right, yeah,
there you go. So if you want me to take
a look or both of us, I'm more than happy
to save you a couple cents or maybe give you
the way to talk to the families about it, because
(21:21):
sometimes people just don't have the words yes right, you
don't know how to talk to them in a way
that's not going to be offensive. So I'm happy to help.
You can go to how preschool Teachers Do It dot com.
We have a contact form and you can go to
Facebook and send us a message, and also we have
a forum we do on our website. Feel free folks,
(21:42):
please use that forum on the website. All right, we
will catch you next time on the podcast. Bye piece
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